Earlier this week we noted that Personhood Colorado had brought Alan Keyes into the state for a press conference at which it unveiled its new ad campaign featuring a fictitious slave speaking out against the evils of abortion.

Well, we've finally managed to track down the audio of the ad:

I'm George Stevens and I'm a person. I was held as property as a child. Even before my birth I was called a slave in an America you wouldn't recognize. But folks like you helped me escape North to freedom and in 1864, I joined the infantry to fight for my country. I fought so all slaves would be recognized as persons, not property. And we won.

But today in Colorado, there are still people called property - children - just like I was. And that America you thought you wouldn't recognize is all around you and these children are being killed.

This November, vote "yes" on Amendment 62. Amendment 62 declares unborn children persons, not property. And that's the America I fought for.

So visit PersonhoodColorado.com and in November, vote "yes" on 62. It's the right thing to do.

When this measure was on the ballot back in 2008, it lost by a 3 to 1 margin - it even lost in El Paso County, which is the home of Colorado Springs, Focus on the Family, and Dr. James Dobson, 65% to 35%.

But apparently Personhood Colorado organizers think that running ads with fake slaves comparing the measure to the Civil War is a winning strategy this time around.

Last week, I saw a press release from Personhood Colorado announcing that they were going to be holding a press conference on Monday featuring Alan Keyes at which the organization would announce their campaign strategy and release their first radio ad.

At the time I didn't pay much attention to it because this is a fringe effort that doesn't have much support even from anti-choice groups. In fact, the last time a "personhood" amendment was on the ballot in Colorado, it received a measly 27% support.

Backers of a ballot initiative asking Colorado voters to essentially ban abortion in the state announced their campaign strategy yesterday, a strategy that includes comparing fetuses to slaves.

Members of Personhood Colorado unveiled their first campaign advertisement at a news conference at the Capitol. The radio ad, which will be aired in the coming days, compares the rights of fetuses to American slaves.

It features a fictitious slave by the name of George Stevens who says he fought to end the practice of declaring people as property.

“I fought so all slaves would be recognized as persons, not property, and we won,” says Stevens in the radio spot, as patriotic war music plays in the background. “But today in Colorado there are still people called property - children - just like I was. And that America you thought you wouldn’t recognize is all around you, and these children are being killed.”

The ad asks voters this November to vote “yes” on Amendment 62 because the measure declares unborn children persons, not property.

Finally, quote of the day from Bryan Fischer, responding to the settlement in the Constance McMillen case: "This is how evil advances in America - one weak-kneed group of kind-hearted, wimpish people at a time ... what this situation called for was not niceness but goodness, not capitulation but courage."

We've written about James David Manning, pastor of Atlah World Missionary Church, once or twice before noting that even by the standards of the Birther movement, Manning is completely off the deep end:

Manning came to public attention in the 2008 presidential election after ATLAH posted several sermons of his that were harshly critical of Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the website YouTube. Among other accusations, he called Obama a "good House Negro" in one sermon while in another he referred to Obama as "trash" due to circumstances surrounding his mixed race heritage and accused him of being a "pimp" (pimping "white women and black women") and "long-legged mack daddy," and an "emissary of the devil", citing the viral video "I Got a Crush... on Obama". He stated that Obama "has the cadence of an Islamic person,"and he called Obama's mother "trash" for becoming pregnant by a black man out of wedlock. Manning revisited this latter issue during a press conference at the National Press Club on 8 December 2008: "Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with African men. So it's usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they're going to have sex."

Manning defended his sermons in an interview on Fox News, saying that "we also have to talk about his character."He compared TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who supported Obama's campaign, to the Whore of Babylon, the "Queen of the Universe", and an Antichrist.

For the last several days, Manning and his supporters have been hosting a "trial" of President Obama [PDF], claiming that he never attended Columbia University but was actually a CIA agenda who used it as cover so he could go to Pakistan to provide money, weapons, and logistics to the Mujahideen:

The only reason I even found out about this is because I came across an interview with one of the participants discussing how Alan Keyes was supposed to participate but then backed out because of his fears that his own Birther lawsuits could be compromised by attending.

SHARON: Do you know how Dr. Manning or any of the witnesses prove that Obama did not attend Columbia? Can he actually prove that he was in Pakistan or wherever he was instead of at Columbia?

MIKI: I don’t know how we prove it, but the only thing that makes sense is that it’s all the CIA. That would explain why all the records are scrubbed. There’s one thing that they can’t hide, and that’s the Social Security numbers. Again, how do you prove that he used those to launder money?

SHARON: Is the theory that the CIA gave Obama a new identity?

MIKI: Absolutely.

SHARON: Did they actually assign him all of these social security numbers, or do you think he did that on his own?

MIKI: Again, if the CIA was behind it, they would be involved in every single aspect of it, because the money that he was getting went to help the Mujahadeen fight the Russian invasion. Here’s another really interesting thing: the story is out there that he attended Patrice Lamumba University. About three weeks ago, I finally found the website for Patrice Lamumba, and it said, “Distinguished Alumni,” and on the list was “Barry Soetoro.”

SHARON: Really?

MIKI: Yes. And it took you to the Wikipedia page all about “President” Barack Obama and his history.

SHARON: Could that have been set up as a hoax?

MIKI: That was set up as a red herring to throw everyone off the trail of the Pakistan connection. Anyway, I saw it, and they mentioned that, and someone might have testified about it earlier in the trial. However, it was brought up again today, and I remember when I first heard about that, it was right after Rev. Manning put out the word about the trial, and right after that, he did a YouTube video where he said, “They’re lying. They’re going to say that he was actually in Russia attending Patrice Lamumba University” to throw us off. He also said, “You watch; they’re not going to deny it; they’re going to let you think that that’s where he was, but don’t fall for it. He was really in Pakistan.”

SHARON: If the CIA gave Obama a new identity or identities, why was he not stopped when he put his hat in the ring to run for president? Has anyone discussed how he got as far as he did if all his records were scrubbed?

MIKI: We can probably find out. I heard that he signed an Executive Order to seal all of his records.

SHARON: He did; I recall reading about it shortly after his “coronation.”

MIKI: So no one can get his Punahou or other records. The ones that they absolutely don’t want anybody seeing are those that were scrubbed such as the passport records which involved Brennan, who worked for that company which worked with the CIA. They have the means, the wherewithal, to be able to scrub those passport records, and it’s known and reported about that breach where all three, McCain, Clinton and Obama’s records were breached. So the theory is that the late Lt. Quarles Harris knew something and he was supposedly working with the investigator, but which investigators we don’t know; perhaps just the local cops. And then he ended up being murdered. The only person who had a key to open that door was snuffed out. So that was discussed, and this is material that we had already heard. But again, there is the CIA connection. There’s Brennan, and now what’s Brennan doing now? So it’s just all too cozy.

SHARON: No one could have known 20 years ago that Obama was going to run for president. Is there a theory that he was recruited by the CIA because he could speak the language?

MIKI: Yes.

SHARON: Why would there have been a need to provide Obama with a fake past? Others have worked undercover for the CIA but the CIA perhaps doesn’t go to these lengths to hide it. What is your theory about that?

MIKI: Well, tomorrow they’re calling a witness who is an ex-KGB agent who wants to talk and feels that his life is in danger and he may as well get it out there. But getting back to the CIA, we know that the United States was financing the pushback against the Russian invasion. We were working with them and gave them money and guns. So where do you find these people to recruit to get them to do that? You look for someone who will fit, with a Muslim background who can speak at least a dialect of their language. And where do they recruit these people? They find these loners like Barack Obama at Occidental who are on a foreign-student status (again, those records were scrubbed), but he probably held a passport under the name of “Barry Soetoro” from Indonesia.

SHARON: Has any evidence come out about that yet that you’ve heard?

MIKI: No. There again, those records were either scrubbed…it’s all hidden. And it’s only the CIA that can do all of this. No matter how much they did, things have still leaked out. Almost everything that we’re hearing now we already knew. It had been leaked out, or we knew about it, and they couldn’t hide that. But wherever they could hide stuff, they did. But I think what happened was that they never expected that he would run for president. First he was a state senator in Illinois, and he used thug techniques to knock off the competition.

As one would expect, this led to a rather entertaining discussion, as Porter cites First Lady Michelle Obama referring to Kenya as President Obama's "home country" and then citing Glenn Beck's theory that it was a deliberate attempt by the First Lady to goad the Right into taking the bait in an effort to marginalize them, at which point Keyes goes off and calls Beck an idiot:

Porter: I did not bring it up, but there is still a question about the birth certificate. I would think that if Michelle Obama was going to sensitive to that, she wouldn't have said this in a speech, maybe you didn't hear it, here it is:

[AUDIO of Michelle Obama]: Barack has led by example. When we took our trip to Africa and visited his home country in Kenya ...

Poter: Did you catch that? His home country in Kenya. Uh, wow. That's a pretty strong statement, as she was speaking to the homosexual organizations.

Keyes: I think that's kind of strange . My wife is originally from India, she's a naturalized citizen. And my children have been to India and we try to make sure that they are aware of their heritage and background. But you know something? I can't imagine, I can't imagine one of them calling India their home country. It just wouldn't make sense. And I think things like that are part of what we people who want some clear answers, because you add that to policies that are clearly at odd with the best interests of the country, and especially in national security, really seem to put us in danger. I believe it's beginning to raise some serious issues.

Porter: By the way, people like Glenn Beck say - and he's been pretty forthright and out there on a lot of issues - but he says "ah, she's just doing this to kind of fuel the fire that makes us look like kooks." What do you say to that?

Keyes: Well, I don't take Glenn Beck seriously at all, particularly on this question. People like that are shooting of their mouths. Glenn Beck is an ignoramus on this question, and he has sounded like one in every statement he's ever made. He knows nothing about the Constitution, doesn't understand its requirements, hasn't the faintest regard for the simple logic that is involved in this particular case. And is basically showing much less common sense than most of the people around the country who understand what's at stake and who realize that if you're going to respect the Constitution, you must respect the words that apply to the most powerful office in the gift of the American people. So I think Glenn Beck has simply been acting foolishly on this issue.

Even though the Religious Right can get no love from the Tea Party movement when it comes to adopting even a small part of their social agenda, it seems that Religious Right leaders are just tripping over themselves to speak at Tea Party rallies whenever the chance arises.

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann paired up for a campaign event today in Minnesota. Somehow the universe did not implode.

The AFA's Don Wildmon will be a featured guest at the Florida Family Policy Council's 5th Annual Policy Awards Dinner where he will receive the FFPC's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Daniel Webster Award for Principled Service to Public Policy.

For some reason, Phyllis Schlafly is really focused on preventing a second Constitutional Convention. Is anybody calling for a second Constitutional Convention?

Peter LaBarber hops aboard Matt Barber's "the Left is just like Fred Phelps" bandwagon.

Thomas Sowell accuses President Obama of exploiting polarization, just like what happened in Rwanda.

Finally, it seems appropriate that Alan Keyes will be speaking at Tea Party rally that will be held at the Nutter Center.

Yesterday we mentioned that Rick Green had made it into a run-off election for a spot on the Texas Supreme Court, which was rather remarkable considering that he had exactly zero judicial experience and, since being voted out of state legislative office back in 2002, had been serving as David Barton's right-hand man at WallBuilders.

Now if you know anything about Barton's work and his presentations, then this video of Green will seem very familiar as he is basically Barton's back-up; a second-stringer delivering WallBuilders' presentations about America's purely Christian heritage when Barton is unavailable:

But rest assured that Green has an identity of his own, as well ... he's also a Tea Party activist who rails against "socialists" like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and announces that they are "firing the first shots of a second American Revolution right here in Texas":

And just in case it isn't clear just how right-wing Rick Green really is, allow me to post this video of Alan Keyes endorsing him back in 2002:

It seems that while the pundits and prognosticators are mulling over just what Scott Brown's victory means for President Obama, the Democratic agenda in Congress, and the future of the Republican Party, a theme is starting to emerge among the Religious Right that as exciting as Brown's win may have been, he's really just another RINO.

Randall Terry was first out of the box, saying that Brown's win was better than a Coakley win, but "we must not deceive ourselves or our supporters about Scott Brown, and his true position on child killing. We need to replace Scott Brown as soon as we can with a true defender of babies' lives, not a phony who supports their murder."

Conservatives working to restore constitution freedom can cheer for Obama's defeat, but take no cheer from Brown's victory because he is a typical RINO (Republican-in-name-only) who:

* has no differences in principle with the socialist-minded Democrats;

* embraces the substance of Obama's socialist agenda, but "opposes" Obama by criticizing his implementation of socialism, especially when it comes to fiscal matters;

* agrees in principle with the Democrats on the fundamental issues of justice and morality but employs the deceptive rhetoric of personal opinion to evade the questions of public law and policy they involve. Such issues include child-murder and other abrogations of the unalienable right to life, as well as the rejection of the God-endowed rights of the natural family.

Many social conservatives (of which I’m one) have complained that the senator-elect is woefully flawed on social issues – particularly abortion. This is true.

Still, to my pro-life, pro-family compatriots, I offer this: While bleeding to death, one may be left no choice but to apply a tourniquet. A tourniquet is less than ideal. It may even cost a limb; however, it’s also likely to save one’s life. Obama has sliced open America’s wrists with his cutting political agenda. Time is of the essence. By providing Senate Republicans the crucial 41st vote needed to filibuster, Scott Brown supplies the tourniquet.

...

Of course, none of this justifies Brown’s indefensible position on abortion, “civil unions” and other social issues. I and others will not rest until he, and all who have been so deceived by the euphemistic language of “choice” and “reproductive freedom,” likewise recognize that all persons – whether born or pre-born – share an “inalienable right to life” that in every instance trumps another’s phantom “right to choose” premeditated murder.

Social conservatives held back criticism of Brown's social views--and, in some cases, openly supported him--because they believe a Brown win fulfills a short term goal of blocking President Obama's abominable health bill. Of course, the Republican Establishment would like us to believe that Scott Brown's moderate platform on life and marriage is a recipe for conservative success in 2010.

So it remains to be seen just how long the current infatuation with Brown lasts and if, when he comes up for re-election down the road, right-wing groups who are happy with his election now will be change their tune and end up backing a "true conservative" primary challenger later.

Obviously, that is a long way away ... but given that the Right doesn't really support Brown now, it is entirely possible that he might eventually find himself the next Dede Scozzafava or Charlie Crist.

Alan Keyes goes after Glenn Beck for dismissing the Birthers are loons.

Legatus will present President George W. Bush with its Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award next month.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs says "the kinds of hate mail and the kinds of attacks I am getting from the right wing are way beyond anything I got when I was criticizing the left or even radical Islam" ever since he broke with the Right.

Marvel at how hard it must be to be a Republican candidate for public office.

The Family Research Council will be hosting a panel discussion next week explaining how healthcare reform is unconstitutional.

Finally, Christian Newswire informs us that the next installment of American Idol will "lose middle America" because its viewers have an "anti0gay bias" and will object to the addition of Ellen DeGeneres

Alan Keyes, writing on his blog Alan Keyes is LOYAL TO LIBERTY (seriously, that is its name,) explains that just as he warned back in 2004 that Barack Obama was a "hard line Marxist bent on destroying America," he must now sound the alarm bells about Sarah Palin, declaring her to be insufficiently opposed to abortion:

Nothing Sarah Palin has said or done supports the view that she is pro-life as a matter of justice, law and public policy. So far as I can tell, she is just a pro-choice politician who turned a laudable personal choice into a seductive, but false pro-life public image. All the choices and statements she has made in her public capacity support this conclusion. If I'm wrong, show me the facts and statements that indicate something beyond the "I'm personally pro-life" position so common among the so-called "pro-choice" promoters of "abortion rights".

Unless Sarah Palin fundamentally alters the views she has enunciated and acted on up to now, I predict that she will disappoint the hope so many sincerely pro-life people are mistakenly investing in her supposed pro-life stand. I am sure I will pay a price for saying now what others will only realize when it may be too late. I was excoriated starting in 2004 for calling Obama a hard line Marxist bent on destroying America. That view is not at all so contemned today as it was when facts and reasoning first convinced me of its truth. Similarly on account of facts and reasoning I and others insist that Obama cease to withhold evidence bearing on whether or not he satisfies the Constitution's eligibility requirements for the Office of President of the United States. For this we are vilified and ridiculed, though many of our fellow Americans now join in this demand.

My view of Sarah Palin's supposed pro-life stance, and the danger involved in following her leadership, is similarly based on facts and reasoning. I will hold to it until one or the other clearly compels me to do otherwise. Experience has taught me that even among those whose pro-life hearts espouse the self-evident truths that make us free, when it comes to politics the factual standard of truth often gives way to personal feelings and expedient calculation. Given the crisis we are in, I can only pray that at some point they will realize that this neglect of the requirements of truth is the very reason America's liberty has reached the crisis point. Before a people finds leaders willing to act in truth, they must become a people willing to submit their own judgments and decisions to its demands.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Alan Keyes has reached the outer limits of the right-wing fringe movement, which is saying something considering that he had always pretty resided on the fringes to begin with and has only been heading further out since the election of Barack Obama.

But his latest WorldNetDaily column defending Rev. James David Manning, pastor of Atlah World Missionary Church, really is remarkable, even for him.

Normally, I'd post some of Manning's bizarre rantings here to give you a sense of who he is, but his account has been suspended from YouTube, so I'll simply point you to Wikipedia:

Manning came to public attention in the 2008 presidential election after ATLAH posted several sermons of his that were harshly critical of Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the website YouTube. Among other accusations, he called Obama a "good House Negro" in one sermon while in another he referred to Obama as "trash" due to circumstances surrounding his mixed race heritage and accused him of being a "pimp" (pimping "white women and black women") and "long-legged mack daddy," and an "emissary of the devil", citing the viral video "I Got a Crush... on Obama". He stated that Obama "has the cadence of an Islamic person,"and he called Obama's mother "trash" for becoming pregnant by a black man out of wedlock. Manning revisited this latter issue during a press conference at the National Press Club on 8 December 2008: "Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with African men. So it's usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they're going to have sex."

Manning defended his sermons in an interview on Fox News, saying that "we also have to talk about his character."He compared TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who supported Obama's campaign, to the Whore of Babylon, the "Queen of the Universe", and an Antichrist.

You gotta clean house. You got to take Obama to trial, put him in jail for the rest of his life, or hang him. Shoot him on the Washington ... first try him, find him guilty, and the punishment for treason is a death sentence. And then clean the rest out, go get Hillary, go get John McCain, go get George Bush, got get Dick Cheney too, get 'em all. And then we can start over again.

So what does Keyes' have to say about Manning, who is seemingly calling for the execution of several current and former high-ranking government officials? That he's right:

I have followed Rev. Manning's broadcasts and statements for some time. He is forthright and outspoken in his religious and political views. He speaks with a boldness that is surely offensive to people who believe that civility requires silence even in the face of the stratagems of deception now being perpetrated against the American people. But I see nothing that he has said or done that warrants interference with his freedom of speech. Both YouTube's actions and those of the federal and New York City officials who visited his church appear to be in clear violation of his constitutional rights and part of an effort to intimidate him and others who are outspoken critics of the coup d'état being perpetrated by the Obama faction and its fellow travelers among the elites, who are working to accomplish the overthrow of our constitutional republic.

The repression of Rev. Manning's views is an intolerable assault on the constitutional freedom of every American. However disagreeable his voice may be to others, including the present occupant of the White House, his right to voice his criticisms is clear and undeniable. So is his right to seek redress of grievances that threaten the sovereignty of the American people and of every American as a member of the sovereign body of the people. Respect for these rights is one of the bedrock prerequisites of government of, by and for the people. Efforts to thwart and repress their exercise constitute a clear and present danger to the liberty of all Americans. Like the darkening skies and rising winds that announce the landfall of a hurricane, this move to silence Rev. Manning ominously foreshadows the next phase of the elite assault against the Constitution and people of the United States.

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes has given perhaps his most dire warning yet, saying that the Obama administration is preparing to stage terror attacks, declare martial law and cancel the 2012 elections, which is why they are demonizing their political enemies as criminals and terrorists.

“It is so clear hat we have now put a faction in place – they are not playing by the rules and they don’t intend to play by the rules – if they were playing by the rules they wouldn’t have tried to identify their opposition as criminals,” added Keyes, making reference to the recent controversy surrounding the release of the MIAC and Homeland Security reports, which implied that Americans who exercise and are knowledgeable about their constitutional rights are a threat to law enforcement and potential domestic terrorists.

“It’s obvious that they will stop at nothing,” Keyes told attendees of a reception in Fort Wayne, adding, “We may wake up one day and there’s a series of terrorist attacks, the economy is paralysed… martial law will be declared everywhere in the United States and it won’t end until the crisis ends.”

“The minute they think they can get away with it, they will end this system of government and that is their intention,” added Keyes, noting that everyone acting as if the time we are in was just “business as usual” reminds him of the attitude of politicians in the Weimar Republic when Hitler was rising to power or eastern Europe when the Communists were taking over after the second world war.

Keyes said that because the majority of people are decent-minded, they believe others will play by the rules when this simply isn’t the case, warning that this attitude will allow evil to take over before we can do anything about it.

Keyes stated that the only solution was from the bottom up because our leaders “are so gutless that they won’t even ask that the Constitution be enforced for clear, plain, absolutely unequivocal requirements,” and respond meekly with “their lips shut and their hearts terrorized.”

Keyes also warned of Obama’s agenda to create a civilian security force (which could curtail the restrictions of Posse Comitatus Act) and said it was part of the ultimate agenda to disarm American citizens and create a police state.

Keyes has been a vocal critic of Obama, warning that he is a radical communist who is determined to destroy America, and that if his agenda is not stopped then the country as we know it will cease to exist.

It doesn't look like Gov. Mark Sanford's efforts to save his marriage are working out as he had planned.

Sen. Mel Martinez announced that he is resigning his seat and will step down as soon as a replacement is named.

Alan Keyes wants to know why people like Don Wildmon, Gary Bauer, and others on the Right aren't defending the Birthers.

OneNewsNow: Operation Rescue is formally launching a campaign called "Keep it Closed" that targets Nebraska abortionist LeRoy Carhart. Carhart has stated that he will open a late-term abortion facility in Kansas or Nebraska in the aftermath of the shooting death of Wichita abortionist George Tiller. Operation Rescue, in conjunction with Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life, hopes to prevent Carhart from opening the clinic.

Finally, for those who can't wait for September's "How To Take Back America Conference," there will be a pre-conference webcast with many of the hosts on August 18th.

I don't feel this clip provided any new information to the issue - other than providing further evidence that Taitz is insane despite her insistence that she is not, in fact, crazy.

In fact, the insistence by the Birthers that they are not crazy seems to be a their new defense, as that was exactly the point that Wiley Drake made last week:

Obama's supporters "want to brand anyone who questions him as a nut, and they're not. Alan Keyes is not a nut. I'm not," Drake said.

Which brings me to this good piece by David Weigel reporting that Taitz's antics and recklessness is causing a rift in the Birther movement among those who see her as undermining their efforts and which contains this interesting nugget:

The “Kenyan birth certificate” has made skeptics out of people like Leahy and Kreep. Two of Taitz’s original plaintiffs, Wiley Drake and Markham Robinson, both associates of Alan Keyes during his presidential campaign, were removed from her latest filing after seeking new representation.

On a semi-related note, I think it is also worth pointing out that Chuck Norris now seems to be throwing in with the Birthers as well, doing so by claiming that while he doesn't have any reason to doubt Obama's claims to citizenship, his refusal to release the document the Birthers are demanding is raising questions:

Isn't categorically satisfying constitutional requirements for a president, or answering the First Amendment grievances of hundreds of thousands of Americans, or ending a national debate or healing a country's divisions enough "direct and tangible interest"?

Mr. President, as more and more people realize that you are refusing to release your original birth certificate, further questions will fuel the fires of debate or at least hinder the embers from ever being snuffed out. Questions like, "Does it really contain the Hawaiian physician's name?" Or "Does it disclose something other than his birth place that he wishes others not to see?"

...

So again I ask, why don't you simply request, release and give permission to make public your original birth certificate?

Let's not forget that Norris was among Mike Huckabee's biggest and most visible supporters. That, coupled with the fact that Huckabee is scheduled to headline a right-wing conference next month being hosted by three bona fide Birthers leads me to wonder just what Huckabee's views are on this issue, considering that several of the people he has chosen to associate and surround himself with are deeply enmeshed in the Birther conspiracy movement.

By now, everyone realizes that Orly Taitz is the "Queen of the Birthers" and, more importantly, a verifiable nutcase. Everyone that is except for people like Lou Dobbs, Janet Porter, and all of the others who have latched onto her conspiracy theories.

And while Taitz has been saying crazy things since she launched this crusade, the recent attention she has been receiving seems to have emboldened her to really let loose, leading to profiles like this one by Max Blumenthal in which she proclaims that President Obama is worse than Stalin, ought to be in prison, and rapidly turning America into Nazi Germany:

Almost as soon as Orly Taitz answered her cellphone, before I could even ask a single question, the leader of the movement determined to disprove President Obama’s American citizenship breathlessly told me the president was “connected” to 39 bogus Social Security numbers, including one for a deceased person born in 1890. “If Obama is not stopped, we will be in Nazi Germany!” Taitz, who has a thick Russian accent, shrieked. “Forgery is a criminal matter and he committed it. Obama should be in the Big House, not the White House!”

Since Taitz’s “birther” campaign began, in the summer of 2008, during the late stages of the Democratic primaries, the dentist, lawyer, and mother of three has begun winning friends in high places. Taitz told me excitedly that since she opened her Facebook account, she has had to hire a staff of five to process the thousands of friend requests she receives each week.

Among those requesting her online friendship, Taitz said, are House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA), and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. She has even received a request, she said, from someone saying they are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I personally checked [the request] and determined that it came from his office,” Taitz said.

Among Taitz’s “biggest supporters,” she said, is CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. “I did Lou’s radio show for half an hour and he was very understanding,” she told me. “He became a supporter and since then he became a supporter of the whole [Obama eligibility] issue.” Indeed, during the July 15 broadcast of Dobbs’ radio show, he praised Taitz’s work, suggested Obama might be “undocumented,” and demanded the president “show the documents” to prove he was born in the United States.

When I spoke to Taitz, she had just finished taping an interview with The Colbert Report. By her own count, she has been interviewed by no fewer than 170 news outlets around the world. While she’s grateful for the exposure, the scrutiny of the media seems to have her in a persistent state of heightened exasperation.

“This is Nazi Germany! These are brownshirts in action!” Taitz exclaimed when asked about recent segments by Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Jon Stewart mocking her campaign and questioning her credibility. “Anybody who does not take Obama’s word at face value will be harassed by brownshirts like Rachel Maddow.”

Taitz’s apparent view of present-day American life through the lens of World War II Europe may be due in part to her upbringing in the Soviet republic of Moldova and then in Israel, where she lived until she immigrated to the U.S. in 1987. Now a resident of Buena Park, California, Taitz said she feared Obama would transform her adopted country into a totalitarian state as soon as he stepped onto the national stage. Reading online discussions about Obama’s supposed plan to create a “civilian national security force” aroused Taitz’s early alarm.

“I realized that Obama was another Stalin—it’s a cross between Stalinist USSR and Nazi Germany,” she said.

Interestingly, while Tatiz is reportedly hiring staff, other Birthers are closing up shop because they can't get any financial support, as Alan Keyes, himself a Birther, laments today in WorldNetDaily:

I read with sadness but no surprise WND's article about the demise of The Obama File [run by Parker Shannon], "an extensive depot of information questioning Barack Obama's eligibility to hold the office of president."

...

The juxtaposition of prayerful good wishes and indolent support highlights one of the saddest realities of our time ... many of those who work today to defeat the overthrow of our God-given liberty are perishing from the material indifference of those who benefit from and approve of their work.

This partly reflects a successful strategy being implemented by the forces working to achieve the overthrow of liberty. Faced with facts and reasoning they cannot refute, they resort to ad hominem attacks. Chief among these is the accusation that greed motivates the people who try to share facts and arguments the manipulative media systematically ignore. (Ironically greed is, of course, among the chief motives of those who staff the corporate media outlets.) Meanwhile, the people being accused, people like Parker Shannon, me and others I hear from practically every day, inexorably slide toward bankruptcy.

Did you notice how Keyes managed to include himself among those defenders of liberty who find themselves sliding toward bankruptcy?

It looks like the Birther conspiracy theory might be turning a corner. No, it is not going away but rather the entire issue is now being held up by people on the Right as evidence of a plot by the media and President Obama to marginalize conservatives.

Earlier this week, Bill Pascoe, the man "whose idea it was to recruit Alan Keyes to run" against Barack Obama in Illinois, wrote in CQ that all the attention suddenly being paid to the Birthers was part of a media ploy to discredit the conservative movement:

Is this anything but a gift to the Democrats?

Am I the only one to notice that mainstream media attention to the "Birthers" has picked up in recent weeks -- and that this increased attention is coincident to the turn in Obama's approval ratings?

A search of The Washington Post web site, for instance, on the term "Birther" yields as its oldest hit this one from July 6; a search of The New York Times, though, shows one June reference in passing and then the first real mention of the term on July 22.

Far be it from me to assume one is the cause of the other -- as faithful readers know, I do my best to avoid falling into the post hoc, ergo propter hoc trap -- but, still, it is an interesting coincidence.

Coincident or not, it is eating up valuable air time and gobbling up precious inches of type that could, and should, be devoted to other, more pressing, matters -- like the self-immolation of the Democratic Party, as it struggles to find a way to reform the health care delivery system without destroying it.

Reasonable and responsible conservatives, thus, are stuck. We are being lumped in with irresponsible and unreasonable conspiracy theorists.

Goldberg: I have a theory. And the theory is this: That the Chicago Mafia inside the White House want to keep this crazy controversy going. Because the longer it goes, the better the chance that they will conflate the crazy right-wing fringe with regular conservatives and regular Republicans.

O'Reilly: That's not a bad theory.

A word of advice to Golberg and Pascoe: if you want to avoid being conflated with the crazy right-wing fringe and being lumped in with irresponsible and unreasonable conspiracy theorists, then it is probably best not start spewing crazy theories about how the media and the White House are engaged in a massive conspiracy to paint you as crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Wiley Drake has played a central role in keeping the Birther conspiracy alive, as he and his running mate, Alan Keyes, are among the few members of the movement who can claim "standing" in the various lawsuits filed by Orly Taitz by alleging that they were directly harmed by the fact that Barack Obama is ineligible to be President of the United States.

So despite the fact that Hawaii's health director released a statement yesterday attesting that she has personally seen President Obama's birth certificate in the Health Department's archives, it comes as no surprise that Drake remains unmoved:

Hawaiian officials have again attested to the veracity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, but Pastor Wiley Drake of the Buena Park Southern Baptist Church is not convinced.

Nor does he believe it will affect the lawsuit he is a party to in Orange County Superior Court, challenging Obama's eligibility to hold the nation's highest office.

"We've been there, done that before," Drake said of Hawaiian authorities. "They've sworn to the validity of it before, then they've backed off, so we don't know what they're doing."

You know else is unsurprising? That fact that Drake insists that he is not, in fact, "a nut":

Obama's supporters "want to brand anyone who questions him as a nut, and they're not. Alan Keyes is not a nut. I'm not," Drake said.

Alan Keyes Posts Archive

Conservative author Diana West is out with a new WorldNetDaily column in which she warns that President Obama is turning America into a North Korean-style dictatorship with “one-party rule” and must face impeachment:
A few days ago, [Lars] Hedegaard wrote me with a new assignment:
“Would you write something about a disturbing phenomenon: the fact that Obama rules by decree and neglects the Constitution. How can this go on? Nixon was a complete amateur compared to this would-be Kim Jong-un. It looks like a coup d’etat. Nobody talks about it in Europe.”... MORE >

According to Alan Keyes, President Obama’s recent statement that he doesn’t think marijuana “is more dangerous than alcohol” makes him just as bad as the hijackers in the September 11 attacks.
Keyes, who was Obama’s GOP opponent in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois, writes in Renew America today that “Obama himself” may have “long-term individual damage” from smoking pot when he was young, which Keyes believes has “grave implications for the welfare of the nation as a whole.”
The right-wing activist is also upset about TV... MORE >

In his weekly column for WorldNetDaily, Alan Keyes today claims that the judge who overturned Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the rights of straight people and paved the way for the destruction of America.
Keyes, who has warned that marriage equality will lead to “the murder of the masses,” contends that judges who rule in favor of marriage equality should be impeached and removed from their positions since the legalization of same-sex marriage will “overthrow America’s historically exceptional government.”
“The will to resist such abuses... MORE >

Alan Keyes is now citing Jesus Christ in his drive to elect members of Congress who will pledge to support the impeachment and removal of President Obama, who he says is practicing “socialist gangsterism” and using gun laws to have people “slaughtered by the thousands and the hundreds of thousands.”
Writing today in WorldNetDaily, Keyes claims that most Americans do support impeachment but are being ignored by leaders in Congress. He doubts that America can “wait three more years for the chance to end Obama’s destructive socialist coup d’état... MORE >

Conservative griping about Pope Francis continues. Billionaire Ken Langone, the founder of Home Depot, complained to Cardinal Timothy Dolan that the pope’s comments about capitalism would hurt efforts to raise funds from rich people for a renovation of St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York. But Langone’s whining about the pope hurting rich peoples’ feelings pales in comparison to a New Year’s Day diatribe published by Alan Keyes’ Renew America website about the Vatican hiring “pro-homosexual corporations” as advisors.
The piece by conservative... MORE >

Angry over the GOP’s “surrender in principle on issues of fundamental right like abortion and the rights of the natural family,” Alan Keyes thinks that it may be time for a third party that will represent the far-right.
Keyes, who ran against Barack Obama for US Senate in 2004, said that while all of his “prognostications and predictions I have continually and repeated made about the destructive, anti-American nature and intent of Barack Obama and all those who collaborate with him” have been “confirmed,” Republican politicians “have been either... MORE >

In a Renew America column Saturday, Alan Keyes attacked Wyoming Senate candidate Liz Cheney for not denouncing marriage equality strongly enough, claiming that her opposition is so weak that it will only help the gay rights movement. Keyes, like Cheney, has an openly gay family member: He disowned his daughter after she came out of the closet.
During his 2004 campaign for Senate against then-state senator Barack Obama, Keyes derided Liz Cheney’s openly gay sister Mary as a “selfish hedonist”; at the time, Liz said she would not “dignify [the remark] with a comment.... MORE >

At last week’s less-than-spectacular kickoff for the Second American Revolution, Larry Klayman announced that President Obama has until this coming Friday, November 29, to resign. If he doesn’t, Klayman and his friends will move forward with their plan to organize mass civil disobedience, force the resignation of President Obama and the Congress, and replace them with a government-in-waiting to be formed in Philadelphia in the coming weeks.
The idea was even too much for Alan Keyes, who decided not to show up at Klayman’s rally in Washington DC last week. Klayman read... MORE >